Dallas Business Journal articles from April 1995

Dallas Business Journal archives from April 1995

Provident Bank trolls for buyers. (Provident Bank Dallas)
April 28, 1995... Ailing Dallas bank, still burdened with foreclosed real estate, solicits bids from 15 institutions After years of rumors that it was for sale, Provident Bank Dallas this month officially put itself on the block, soliciting bids from more...

Craftmade will build new HQ. (Craftmade International Inc.)
April 28, 1995... Fast-growing Craftmade International Inc. is planning to build a 350,000-square-foot headquarters building in the Coppell area. Craftmade, a public company that markets and distributes ceiling fans, currently is based in Grand Prairie. The...

Class dismissed: seeking new training methods. (employee training; Pepitone Bekshire Piaget)
April 28, 1995... It's going to take a Renaissance in the workplace to do more in less time. And James Pepitone would like to be the Renaissance man. Pepitone is founder of Dallas-based Pepitone Berkshire Piaget, a consulting firm that specializes in...

Feds probe Southwest Corporate. (National Credit Union Administration; Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union)
April 28, 1995... Federal regulators are investigating Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union in connection with its 1994 purchase of an operations unit from the Texas Credit Union League. Last fall, Farmers Branch-based Southwest Corporate bought from the...

Commuter airline likes odds in Shreveport. (Texas Airways; Louisiana)
April 28, 1995... A Dallas commuter airline may take a gamble on Shreveport, La. Texas Airways, which flies out of Love Field, could begin offering service to the region's gambling mecca by mid-May. "The city of Shreveport is interested in scheduled...

PrimeCo ready to get rolling in Metroplex. (Primeco Inc.; Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area)
April 28, 1995... PCS PrimeCo placed its bids, paid its money and established a headquarters. Now the people running the company have arrived in Dallas ready to do business. The second largest bidder in the Federal Communications Commission's auction for...

Harris loses, Kaiser wins in HMO profit battle. (Harris Methodist Health System; Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Texas; health maintenance organization)
April 28, 1995... Six of the Metroplex's 13 health maintenance organizations posted losses in 1994, while the most profitable - Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Texas - raked in profits of more than $14.3 million. The least profitable HMO - Harris Methodist...

Rental shop owner says Dallas looks different on a Harley. (Big Ride owner Chad Eeds; Harley Davidson motorcycles)(Strategies)
April 28, 1995... Chad Eeds counted Harley-Davidsons cruising Greenville Avenue one warm day as he and a friend sat outside over some Mexican food and margaritas. They stopped at 30. And Eeds knew he was on to something big. Eeds, 26, recently opened a...

Growing companies stay ahead of the game. (Arreola Corporate Services Inc. and Byrne Johnson Agency)(A Salute to Small Business)
April 28, 1995... Arreola Corporate Services Inc. According to Dannette Arreola, growing a small business from less than $250,000 in revenue and six part-time employees into a privately held corporation with substantial revenue and 100-plus full-timers in...

Companies illustrate creativity in business. (Advertising International and Quality Mailing Services Inc.)(A Salute to Small Business)
April 28, 1995... Advertising International "This time last year, I was a one-man band," said Edwin Love of Advertising International. "Now we've got six full-time people, and business is good and getting better all the time," he said. Advertising...

Minority-owned firms put business first. (Hector Gomez Engineers Inc.; Hudson Office Products; Liverpool Building Services Inc.)(A Salute to Small Business)
April 28, 1995... Hector Gomez Engineers Inc. So what does a 53-year-old electrical engineer with two teen-agers at home - one about to enter college - do when he's suddenly laid off from his position as vice president of his firm? Hector Gomez, less than...

Women open the doors for other women. (outstanding women-owned businesses Cesco Inc., Computer Directions and ZoCom Technologies Inc.)(A Salute to Small Business)
April 28, 1995... Cesco Inc. For Billie Bryant, the word change always has held special meaning. In 1979, Bryant was faced with taking over her husband's small business, a coin equipment and bill validator company, while he underwent heart valve...

Just for the health of it. (AMX Corp.; health insurance)(Health Care Directory)
April 28, 1995... Buying the right health plan is critical to a business When Scott Miller started his own business in 1982, he didn't know the first thing about buying health insurance for his employees. As president and chief executive of AMX Corp., his...

Gang of new HMOs muscles in. (health maintenance organizations enter North Texas market)
April 21, 1995... Eleven insurers, including newcomers from around U.S., think huge North Texas market is underserved A tidal wave of almost a dozen health maintenance organizations could be flooding the Metroplex in coming months. Seven companies are...

Kelleher: Southwest will stay on top. (Southwest Airlines Co. CEO Herb Kelleher)(Interview)
April 21, 1995... Gen. George Patton owns a spot on the office wall of Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher. "It's museum glass," Kelleher said about the framed photograph above the sofa. "You can see it from anywhere in the room. No glare." Kelleher is an...

Real estate syndications back in town. (Dallas, Texas)
April 21, 1995... A limited partnership led by McCaslin Development Co. is launching a luxury-apartment development that may signal the return to Dallas of the syndication - a financing technique that all but died with the real estate market crash of the late...

Area banks, thrifts are striking gold in Plano. (Texas)
April 21, 1995... Area banks are moving where the jingle is. It's not in Dallas, it's in Plano. Banks large and small have sent out their cash hounds, scouting the region for big money, and they're discovering a population in Plano whose average income is...

Home builders move farther north in search of profits.(Industry Overview)
April 21, 1995... Rising land prices in the suburbs north of Dallas have prompted some homebuilders to look farther north to find land that won't squeeze their profits. For example, Holigan Homes' new 200-acre Estates on Preston subdivision in Celina, a small...

Long-distance reseller Excel to add 300 jobs at new site. (Excel Telecommunications Inc.)
April 21, 1995... Long-distance provider Excel Telecommunications Inc. plans to add 300 employees to work in a new customer-service facility the firm will open in three to nine months, according to Excel managing vice president Dan Robison. Such a move...

Brokers seek freedom at smaller firms.
April 21, 1995... Fed up with pushing Smith Barney's recommended investments, Joe Klesken left the firm almost three years ago for the less restrictive confines of a local independent stock brokerage - and he says he hasn't looked back since. Klesken says he...

Weaver merger simmered for many years. (Weaver and Tidwell; Tannebaum Bindler & Company P.C.)
April 21, 1995... The principals of accounting firms Tannebaum Bindler & Co. and Weaver and Tidwell had known each other for two decades. For roughly half that time, they had talked about merging. When they finally did just that earlier this year, they created...

USData owner snaps up rights to public offering. (USData Corp.)
April 21, 1995... Software developer USData Corp. is going public in a private sort of way. The Richardson company plans to sell 2.6 million shares of common stock in an initial public offering, but USData's new owner, Safeguard Scientifics Inc., is calling...

Texas banks at higher risk for securities losses, study says.
April 21, 1995... Texas banks have more than their fair share of potential difficulties with securities investments, according to a study released by a national bank rating service. Of the 988 banks in Texas, 105 banks had projected held-to-maturity...

Bell agrees to proposed lawsuit settlement. (Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.)
April 21, 1995... Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. has reached a proposed $27.4 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of 57 Texas municipalities. The suit alleges that Southwestern Bell Telephone, a subsidiary of San Antonio-based SBC...

Parkland seeks OK to launch HMO. (Parkland Memorial Hospital; health maintenance organization)
April 14, 1995... County hospital would be first public medical center in Texas to operate its managed-care plan A new health maintenance organization could be coming to the Metroplex very soon, but this one will be operated by an unlikely candidate -...

Ericsson will hire 800 locally. (Ericsson Inc.)
April 14, 1995... Ericsson Inc. is posting a "help wanted" sign outside its Richardson campus. The worldwide provider of wireless telecom equipment plans to hire as many as 800 people this year, said staffing manager Ken Meyers. Last fall, Ericsson officials...

New CEO vows to restore Search Capital. (Search Capital Group Inc. CEO George Evans)
April 14, 1995... George Evans has been at the helm of such well-known consumer lenders as Irving-based Associates Corp. of North America and Kansas City, Mo.-based Century Acceptance Corp. Now he's trying to steer ailing Dallas-based auto financier Search...

Dallas Alley owners scout Addison clone. (Graham Brothers Entertainment Inc.; Addison, TX)
April 14, 1995... Dallas Alley owners are looking to take their successful entertainment concept north to Addison. Graham Brothers Entertainment Inc. is eyeing Addison, a growing business area bisected by the Dallas North Tollway, to duplicate the idea of...

Swope splits from Hunt, takes Champion with him. (Champion Partners Ltd. executives Jeff Swope and Ray Hunt)
April 14, 1995... Industrial-development firm Champion Partners Ltd. and Ray Hunt have parted ways. A source with Champion said that Swope bought out Hunt's interest in Champion recently, after six months of negotiations. Swope now is sole owner of the firm....

Southern Pacific expands south Dallas yard. (Southern Pacific Transportation Co.)
April 14, 1995... Southern Pacific Lines is expanding its South Dallas facility in an effort to meet the needs of a booming intermodal industry and to remain competitive with the larger railroads. The $3.5 million project will increase Southern Pacific's rail...

Paging companies sweep into Dallas to test new services.
April 14, 1995... Waving their newly acquired PCS licenses, several nationwide paging companies are converging in Dallas to test emerging paging technology and services. Plano's Paging Network Inc., Dallas' PageMart Inc. and AirTouch Paging Inc., along with...

Commonwealth finds markets for slow-selling items. (Commonwealth Trading Co.)(Company Profile) (Company Profile)
April 14, 1995... Wholesale executive Joe Ogden hopes he never has to call Dallas-based Commonwealth Trading Company again. "It would mean I'm doing everything right," said Ogden, vice president of BSC Inc. in Louisville, Ky. "Commonwealth has helped me find...

Credit unions, brokerage houses are attracting bank clients.
April 14, 1995... Dallas-area banks collectively lost $800 million in deposits in Dallas County in one year, giving rise to the question: Are credit unions and brokerage houses eating their lunch? While credit unions are reporting big gains and Dallas'...

Bank One to close five Metroplex branches, seven others. (Bank One, Texas N.A.)
April 14, 1995... In an effort to get lean and stay profitable, Bank One Texas is closing five branches in the Metroplex and seven more across the state. The branches will be closed, said Ty Miller, president and chief executive officer of Bank One, Dallas...

Developer plots speculative industrial park on Highway 121. (Industrial Developments International Inc.)
April 14, 1995... Industrial Developments International Inc. is turning up the heat in the Metroplex's already fiery competition for distribution tenants by developing a new industrial park on 180 acres along State Highway 121. Doug Johnson, IDI's vice...

MEPC goes industrial: developer plans 1 million square feet in new projects. (MEPC American Properties Inc.)
April 7, 1995... MEPC American Properties Inc. has mapped out a series of new industrial projects around the Metroplex that could total more than 1 million square feet - and present Alliance Airport with new competition for the largest customers in the market....

American may buy Midway. (American Airlines; Midway Airlines)
April 7, 1995... AMR Corp., the parent corporation of American Airlines, may buy Chicago-based Midway Airlines and fold it into a wholly owned subsidiary, sources closely tied to the situation said this week. AMR said no such acquisition is planned, but...

Write code? You're hired! Metroplex technology and telecom companies are in a mad scramble for software engineers.
April 7, 1995... Blake Holman spent the last seven years bouncing from one corporate suitor to another. Andersen Consulting won his affection when Holman first entered the work force. But he soon dumped the consulting firm and flirted with Ericsson Inc. That...

Southwest aims title insurance at Mexico. (Southwest Land Title Co.)
April 7, 1995... For the past two years, Southwest Land Title Co. has been looking south. Its ambition: create demand for something that as yet does not exist. The Dallas-based company is hoping within 30 days it will strike a deal to offer title insurance...

Bankers groups find little common ground on interstate branching.
April 7, 1995... Top brass at the Texas Bankers Association brought their rival trade association a proposed compromise on federal legislation that would ease entry to Texas for out-of-state banks. But during an April 5 meeting behind closed doors, the state's...

FBI seizes documents from business consultant's ranch. (Gail Cooper)
April 7, 1995... About 50 armed FBI agents stormed the Aubrey ranch of business consultant Gall Cooper last week, seizing records and other items, but the bureau is keeping quiet about its reasons for the raid. Skip Simpson, an attorney who has represented...

Dallas pushes to become a Customs Management Center.
April 7, 1995... Dallas Customs brokers and some legislators are making a last-ditch effort to put the city on a list to get one of 20 U.S. Customs Management Centers under the agency's reorganization plan. Customs officials announced late last year that...

Fuller-Macfarlan plans technology park on 190. (Fuller-Macfarlan Real Estate Services; Highway 190)
April 7, 1995... Fuller-Macfarlan Real Estate Services and a local partner have purchased 163 acres on State Highway 190 in Garland to develop a business park aimed at attracting technology firms. Fuller-Macfarlan President and Chief Executive Dean Macfarlan...

Affiliated Computer builds management team. (Affiliated Computer Services Inc.)
April 7, 1995... Affiliated Computer Services Inc. is revamping its management team. The growth in its outsourcing business - ACS provides computer services to the financial industry - spurred the company to beef up that division's marketing efforts. Along...

Contract attorneys trade money for flexibility.
April 7, 1995... Plano attorney Judy Neal Schmitz has a broker of sorts. She wanted to shift her focus from litigation toward a corporate practice so she could spend more time with her new baby. Co-Counsel of Dallas set her up as a contract attorney for GTE...

Crow sues financial partner. (Trammell Crow Co.; Financial Security Assurance Inc.)
April 7, 1995... Four Trammell Crow Co. entities are suing a financial insurance firm that guaranteed a $90 million offering of Crow debt in 1986, claiming the firm has interfered with Crow's ability to manage the properties securing the guarantee. Problems...

Dallas Family Hospital may get new owner in Columbia/HCA swap. (Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.)
April 7, 1995... In a roundabout manner, Dallas Family Hospital could be getting a new owner - Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. Dallas Family, which is owned by Universal Health Services Inc. based in King of Prussia, Pa., and another Universal hospital in...

Texas Independent Bank expands into San Antonio.
April 7, 1995... Texas Independent Bank of Dallas has opened a loan production office in San Antonio and has increased the size of an existing Alamo City subsidiary, according to company officials. The bank, which had $322 million in assets as of Dec. 31, is...

Hunter Resources closes deals on credit line, new wells.
April 7, 1995... Just days after closing on a $10-million line of credit, Hunter Resources Inc., an Irving-based energy development company, has spent $1.4 million to acquire 25 oil and gas wells in western Texas and New Mexico. The deal includes $1.2...

SBA cutbacks could take toll on employees, loan guarantees. (Small Business Administration)
April 7, 1995... The threat of staff and cost reductions at the U.S. Small Business Administration has begun taking its toll on Texas district offices locally and statewide, even before any official cuts have been announced. Only two workers have left the...

HealthTrust to sell Cornerstone for up to $55M. (HealthTrust Inc.; Cornerstone Health Management Corp.)
April 7, 1995... HealthTrust Inc. found a buyer who could pay up to $55 million for Cornerstone Health Management Corp., its Dallas-based subsidiary. HealthTrust, based in Nashville, Tenn., plans to finalize Cornerstone's sale by mid-April to an Atlanta-based...

Golf courses are making money as sport grows.(Special Report: Golf Guide)
April 7, 1995... It's a game for all ages - a child and adult can play side by side. It's a game for all levels - with the aid of handicaps, a beginner can play against a veteran. And it's a game that is growing in popularity every year - at an almost...